Quote (Voyaging @ Feb 16 2015 01:44am)

Hence neuroeconomics :)

Quote (Skinned @ Feb 16 2015 01:47am)

After learning more about how science works I'm a bit more skeptical about it solving our problems :lol:

Quote (cambovenzi @ Feb 16 2015 01:48am)

An excuse to control people and squash freedom and to violently oppress people for doing things he doesn't like..

Quote (Skinned @ Feb 15 2015 05:53pm)

I don't violently squash people, I'm a social worker who connects people with the services and goods they need to live meaningful and productive lives despite having enormous hardships. I help people who are physically disabled, cognitively disabled, and sometimes spiritually disabled.

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And if somebody brings you into an arrangement against your will by doing something that affects you, you aren't hostage to the situation because of some silly passive-aggression principle. I don't disregard mutually beneficial trade, I think it is great. I think it is staggering that you misunderstand liberalism that much.

And just because you haven't read about orthodox economic theories on mises.org doesn't mean they don't exist :lol: You're going to say something completely stupid like I advocate raising taxes all the time or something equally Palin-esque. Rather than that, tell me what you do to make the world better.

Quote (Skinned @ 15 Feb 2015 17:31)

Bush 1 maybe, but during Bush 2 I felt like the king was wearing no clothes. I can't believe he got reelected, it was such a disappointed moment and I lost a lot of faith in my fellow Americans that day. It was at that point I knew that the only thing that mattered was which party won, and not who was running. It could have been a coffee table and the trailer parks would have enthusiastically voted for it as long as there was an R next to Coffee Table. Same thing is true in 2008, the anybody but Bush backlash. Plus I was like wtf is this Obama guy, I follow politics and I've barely heard of him at all, why is he running for POTUS? And now since he won anybody thinks they can do it so we're wasting time talking about one-term senators while elder statesmen are just "too old" or "RINOs" because they have the slightest understanding of how politics and government functions.

I try to have faith in people but they're pretty fucking stupid sometimes.

At least we are past the point of having ideological leaders anymore...we are just going to get economic managers that will become more and more authoritarian overtime as democratic values erode. You already hear people saying that democracy is no good and free markets will liberate us all, not self-determination and autonomy. It is happening, and people are okay with it because they believe that throughout human history people have been miserable because they didn't have smartphones in their pockets and appliances and were forced to interact with other people.



Economics is great and endlessly fascinating. It does operate under the flimsiest of pretenses though: people are rational.

But they'll embrace a theory that has crashed and burned repeatedly throughout history while ignoring the orthodox economics that serious economist are discussing now.

Quote (Casey @ 15 Feb 2015 17:21)

Obama isn't the most intelligent of presidents (or he didn't know wtf he was getting into). I'm going with the latter. Bitch about Bush all you want but at least he knew what he was doing.



Fracking is an excellent alternative. Again, bitch, moan, cry about global warming all you want, but this has economical potential.

Economics follows its own path...once we start to run out of fossil fuels, good, we'll find alternatives.

Even if you're correct, it doesn't matter - you can't convince millions of people to change their habits for the cause of global warming (the same people who bitch about global warming are ironically the ones that give off the most CO2).

Quote (cambovenzi @ Feb 15 2015 06:10pm)

Right you just support and hire others to do the violent squashing for you.



See, me explicitly mentioning orthodox economic schools of thought and discussing how they relate to each other and to our discussions doesn't somehow magically mean I've never read about them. In fact it indicates the opposite...
Nor does something being orthodox mean they are right in every regard.

The other day you stated taxes should be raised during recessions and lowered during good times. It wasn't the first time you said as much.
There isn't a politician from Ron Paul to Mitt Romney to Barack Obama himself who would advocate such a tax policy. Nor is there an economist from Keynes to Laffer to Mises to Friedman who would subscribe to your imaginary economic school of thought.


The implication that you are somehow the enlightened one in economics here is frankly ridiculous.

Quote (Gastly @ Feb 15 2015 06:09pm)

what's that
you seem to expect a lot from this neuro-meddling-stuff

Quote (Voyaging @ Feb 16 2015 02:26am)

It's microeconomics that doesn't make up stuff about how humans behave (so basically, it's actually a worthwhile study).

Quote (Voyaging @ Feb 16 2015 02:26am)

Neuro-meddling-stuff?

Quote (Gastly @ Feb 15 2015 06:41pm)

i hope that they remember to consult sociologists and anthropologists then


neuro-stuff seeking to truly peek in on consciousness and values. i don't expect much of it.
but then again i'm usually disgustingly pessimistic

Quote (Voyaging @ Feb 16 2015 02:50am)

All it's trying to figure out is what people tend to do with money lol

Quote (WidowMaKer_MK @ Feb 15 2015 10:53am)

Climate Change Is A Bigger Threat Than Terrorism, Says Obama

By sonali raj on February 13 2015 3:22 AM


US President Barack Obama believes climate change is a greater threat to national security in the United States than terrorism. His views on the issue were confirmed by White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

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...I'll let you guys know if I figure out his username on JSP because he's definitely been posting here in PaRD .